Yeovil Town chairman John Fry says the club hopes to use the income generated from Friday’s FA Cup clash with Manchester United to improve “footballing operations” at Huish Park.

But he added that there are “no guarantees” that all of the profits from the fixture will be reinvested on the footballing side of the club.

It is estimated that as much as half a million pounds could be raised from the visit of Jose Mourinho’s side as a result of ticket sales and the match being shown live on BBC One.

Mr Fry said that he is hoping to oversee a restructuring of the footballing side of the business at Yeovil Town which would involve setting up an under-23s side to bridge the gap between the academy and first team, and that he is due to meet his fellow board members to decide exactly how the Manchester United windfall is spent.

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He said: “Much of that money will go on improving the football, not just players, but the football operations.

“There’s no guarantees [that profits will be reinvested in the first team squad]. It’s a business that runs the football club.

“You have to balance, you have to work the budget out. Across the board and the majority will go to the players, the majority of what you will call surplus money, if you like, and it’s the same thing we do every year.

“Already we start to spend on players, but the board then, and I haven’t met the board yet. I will meet the board and we will then decide that gets spent on what and so forth, changing the business.

“For a few years I’ve wanted to change the business. What we’re doing now is integrating the academy, spending some money on the academy, young players.

“We would like to set up an under-23s side. It’s the biggest missing block we’ve got here.”

Yeovil Town chairman John Fry has been involved at board level at the club since the mid-1990s (Image: Tom Sandberg/Pinnacle)

Mr Fry added that the club is currently operating under a seven year plan and that he hopes that the Glovers can mount a serious challenge for promotion back to League One next season.

Having overseen the club’s rise from the Conference to the Championship and back to League Two, he added that the only way to increase the club’s budget without external investment is for the club to return from the third tier.

He said: “Our objective is to get the club moving upwards and start the season, next season, so the seven year plan would be next season, we’d go for a higher position in the league, to get in the play-offs or even try to get into League One.

“The only way we’re going to produce enough money to stand this club alone, apart from people putting money in, is to get into League One. The only time you feel safe is when you get out of League Two.”

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Mr Fry and club co-owner Norman Hayward have come under criticism from sections of Yeovil Town supporters in recent seasons for a perceived lack of budget that has been handed down to the management to improve the squad.

And the Yeovil chairman says that the club is still recovering from the season after their relegation from the Championship, when they suffered a second straight relegation.

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He said: “Believe you me, we had one hell of a problem coming out of the Championship.

“If I hadn’t held it tight, if I hadn’t held it, this situation was disappointing because the first year we kept Gary on, we gave him an extra £1.3 million in budget to try to get back into the Championship or at least stay in League One and bang, you can’t plan for it.

“It’s harder to keep a club from going down than taking it up. It’s easier going up than coming down and bear in mind it took the club 108 years to get out of non-league.”